Juno: directed by Jason Reitman

Juno MacGuff is not your usual teenager; smart and sharp-tongued, she stands out from the usual High School crowd. After losing her virginity with her friend Paulie Bleeker, she finds herself pregnant and decides to find a suitable couple to adopt the baby.

Consequences When we meet Juno she is buying a home pregnancy kit. The narrative of the film is concerned with how she will deal with the results of the test. Teenage pregnancy is a theme that is dealt with in many films and there are many ways to tell the story of a teenager in this situation.

Juno and Representation The character Juno brings together many different issues of representation. gender – is she a typical teenage girl? Does she conform to a particular stereotype? Have you seen characters like her in other films? Think about extracts of dialogue and specific scenes to support your answer. youth – how does her pregnancy impact on our expectations of her? Do you expect her to become more mature? Did you find her credible? Is there a tension between these different aspects of her identity because of her pregnancy? Is what we see stereotypical, or are our expectations subverted in any way?

Juno: Summary

• Juno MacGuff

•16 and pregnant (up the duff!)

• Boyfriend (friend?)– Paulie

Bleeker

• Lives with Dad (Mac) Step-Mom

(Bren) and half-sister (Liberty Bell)

What is the story?

• Juno discovers she is pregnant after

having sex with her friend Paulie.

• She tells Paulie:

• She goes to have an abortion but

changes her mind (she is distrubed by

the fact that the unborn child has finger

nails).

What is the story?

• Juno then goes to visit Mark.

• They end up dancing and he tells her he is leaving Vanessa.

• Mark expects Juno to be happy.

• Juno is upset; she wanted the baby to go to a stable family.

• She leaves in a hurry and ends up at the side of the road in tears: it all seems to be going wrong.

What is the story?

• Juno decides to continue with the adoption and give the baby to Vanessa.

• Juno goes home and speaks to her father about relationships.

• Juno then goes to Paulie’s house and fills his mailbox with Tic-Tacs.

• Juno goes to the running track to tell Bleeker that she loves him.

• They kiss!

What is the story?

• She decides instead to have the baby

adopted.

• In the back of the ‘Pennysaver’ she

finds an advert from Mark and Vanessa

Loring looking for a baby.

• With her father, Juno meets with the

Lorings to discuss the adoption.

35

Narrative: 3-Act Structure

• Story is split into three acts and an epilogue with intertitles indicating the season:

• Act 1: Autumn (DVD chapter 1 - 00:00): setup

• Act 2: Winter (DVD chapter 12 - 36:01): confrontation

• Act 3: Spring (DVD chapter 19 - 57:19): resolution: dénouement

• Epilogue: Summer (DVD chapter 27 - 85:43)

Q. How is the choice of seasons appropriate to the story?

Q. Summarise in as few words as possible what happens in each act.

26

Categories: Genre

– Indie (oddball characters, indie music)

– Mainstream comedy/drama with upbeat happy ending

– High school movie

– Coming-of-age

– Romance

– Smart teen film

– Full-term pregnancy sub-genre (cf. Waitress, Knocked Up)

Beginning & Ending

9

Turning Point: Moral of Story

10

Recurring Motifs

11

Recurring Motifs

12

Recurring Motifs: Colour

Recurring Motifs: Colour

13

Recurring Motifs: Colour

15

Symbolism

16

Languages: How does it make its meaning?

Visual - composition - (‘mise-en-scene’)

camera codes - (angle, distance, movement)

editing

Sound - dialogue

sound effects

music

Languages: visual

Composition (mise-en-scene)

arrangement within the frame

lighting

colour palette

depth of field (focus pull)

camera distance

angle

movement

editing continuity

transitions

Mise-en-scene

Literally means everything that appears before the camera and how it is

arranged

Props

Sets

Actors

Costumes

Hair and make up

Lighting

The positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking

Opening Sequence

• Created by Shadowplay Studio.

• Artists photographed Page walking and taking swigs from a jug of Sunny Delight.

• Printed out some 900 still images, then repeatedly put each through a "bad Xerox machine" till they looked nearly hand-drawn, Reitman said. Smith invited friends over to his apartment to cut out the images of Page, which he then scanned back into a computer and linked together to create a stop-motion animation.

• The background was then filled in with scanned photos, prints and more cutouts.

For Practice: Essay Questions

are on the next page

30

Language: Cultural Codes

Q. Compare the framing

in the two settings

and mise-en-scène in

these two shots

Q. How does this

contribute to telling

the story?

31

Language: Cultural Codes

Q. Examine how Mark’s wardrobe changes

across the film. How does it reflect his

character arc?

Answers to questions in this section should refer to the text and to such relevant features as:

use of camera, key sequence, characterisation, mise-en-scène, editing, setting, music/sound,

special effects, plot, dialogue .

1. Choose a film which is an example of a specific genre such as horror, romance, action

or comedy.

Explain how the film makers have used the features of the genre to create a successful

Film

2. Choose a film or TV drama* which highlights a particular moral or political or social

or environmental issue.

Identify the issue and show how media techniques are used to persuade us to adopt a

particular view or to explore the issue more fully.

3. Choose a scene or sequence from a film or TV drama* which is particularly dramatic.

Describe what happens in the scene or sequence, explaining how the film or

programme makers effectively use techniques to create drama.

4. Choose a scene or sequence from a film or television drama* which had an impact

on you.

Briefly describe the events which led to this scene or sequence, then, by referring

to appropriate techniques, go on to show how this impact was created